Red Onion

Pests & beneficial insects

🐛 Prone to: Thrips

Thrips

Thysanoptera

Silvery streaking with black specks — the specks are how you tell them from mites.

, Cutworms

Cutworms

Noctuidae

A seedling lying beside its own stump in the morning, cut clean through at soil level.

.

Attract Minute pirate bugs

Minute pirate bugs

Anthocoridae

Two to three millimetres, and both stages hunt — thrips and spider mites, thirty a day.

, Hoverflies

Hoverflies

Syrphidae

The adults only drink nectar. It is the larvae that eat the aphids.

, Lacewings

Lacewings

Chrysopidae

Golden-eyed adults that mostly drink; larvae that hunt like small alligators.

, Ground beetles

Ground beetles

Carabidae

Night-active ground hunters, taking slugs, cutworms and leatherjackets at soil level.

to keep them in check — plant African MarigoldGood, French MarigoldGood and YarrowGood nearby.

How it's grown

Red Onion is usually grown from offsets rather than seed. Detach a rooted offset from the parent plant and pot it up on its own.

Companion Planting

• 
  Comfrey
  

  ComfreyGreat pair

  • ❧Comfrey attracts Ground beetles, which prey on the Cutworms that attack Red Onion
  • ❧Comfrey roots deep while Red Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Red Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around Comfrey
• 
  round leaf lavender
  

  round leaf lavenderGreat pair

  • ❧round leaf lavender attracts Hoverflies, which prey on the Thrips that attack Red Onion
  • ❧round leaf lavender roots deep while Red Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Red Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around round leaf lavender
• 
  Viper's Bugloss
  

  Viper's BuglossGreat pair

  • ❧Viper's Bugloss attracts Hoverflies and Lacewings, which prey on the Thrips that attack Red Onion
  • ❧Viper's Bugloss roots deep while Red Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Red Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around Viper's Bugloss

How to grow Red Onion

1. Sow10 weeks before frost
2. Germinates14 days
3. Space10 cm apart
4. GrowFull sun
5. Harvest~110 days

Water: Medium · Height: 50 cm · Soil: Loose, well-draining, pH 6.0–7.0 — avoid heavy clay